The Adani Group will soon take over the operations of the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati as the group has won a 50-year bid deal to operate the airport.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) will sign an agreement to hand over Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports to Adani Group within January, a report in the Times of India said.
The Adani Group had won the bids to operate six AAI airports including at Mangaluru, Lucknow and Ahmedabad for 50 years on PPP basis.
While Adani Group has taken over Mangaluru, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, AAI will begin the process to hand over the remaining three — including Guwahati airport — by signing the concession agreement by January 25, 2021, AAI chairman Arvind Singh confirmed.
Rapid development of Guwahati airport
Established in 1958, the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati has undergone numerous expansions and renovations. The Guwahati airport has witnessed annual traffic of over 23% in 2018–19 with a total footfall of 5.7 million passengers and 55,066 aircraft movements in the same period.
In 2002, the first international flight operated by Air India from Guwahati airport to Bangkok, using an A310 aircraft, becoming the first international airport in the Northeast region. However, the flight was withdrawn due to poor passenger load.
